Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Memorable Death of Five-Ton Mary

Ninety-seven
years ago, on September 13, 1916, Mary the elephant was hanged by a railroad
derrick car at the Clinchfield Railroad yard. Mary was a five-ton Asian
elephant who performed in the Sparks World Famous Shows circus.

Charles H. Sparks owned the show and it had a reputation in the
entertainment world as being a 100% "Sunday School" Circus.
That is, no short change artist-a clean family entertainment. Charles
Sparks had been in the circus business since the late 1800's. The circus
purchased its first elephant in 1896. That was Mary. She was four
years old and four feet high. At that time the show was a horse and wagon
show. By 1905, they had grown to railroad transportation with one
railroad car. By 1906, they had three rail cars; by 1916, the show had
expanded to fifteen rail cars and five elephants.

The
Spark's show played in Jenkins, Kentucky, then on to St. Paul, Virginia where
they connected with the Clinchfield Railroad on September 9, 1916. Late
in the summer, Louis Reed, the regular elephant trainer, had to leave the show.
Paul Jacoby, who had previously been the elephant trainer, took over the job.
By the time they got to St. Paul they needed an 'under keeper' for the
elephants On Sunday, October 10th or
Monday September 11th, Walter "Red" Eldridge was hired as 'under
keeper.' Ruth has spent many hours trying to get the background of Red
Eldridge. His age was estimated as between 23 and 38 years. He was hired in St.
Paul but apparently had no family there..

The circus went from St. Paul to Kingsport where they played on
September 12th. Between shows the elephants were driven to a watering hole. On
the way back to the tent, Mary went for a piece of watermelon beside the
road. Red prodded her sensitive ear with a bull hook and she became
enraged. She grabbed Red with her trunk and threw against a drink
stand. Then she stepped on his head until it was flat.

The people were terrified. They began screaming, "Kill
the elephant!" A blacksmith tried, but the guns that day were not powerful
enough. Charlie Sparks soon arrived on the scene and calmed Mary.
Mayor Miller and Sheriff Hickman 'arrested' Mary and staked her by the county
jail where many onlookers came by to see her. They gave a statement to
the Johnson City Staff newspaper that steps would be taken to see that the
elephant did not come into contact with the people of Johnson City.

That night, Charlie and Addie Sparks had to make the most
difficult decision of their circus careers. After all those years with Mary
they had become so attached to her, but they couldn't take a chance that she
might harm a circus patron. They decided to have her destroyed. But how
were they to destroy a 7500 pound elephant? Shooting her in four soft
spots on her head might have worked but was too risky with the crowd of curiosity
seekers that the story attracted. She was too smart to eat food
laced with cyanide.

In 1903, an elephant had been electrocuted at Coney Island, with
the help of Thomas Edison. Kingsport or Erwin did not have enough
electrical power for an electrocution. Clinchfield could use two engines
to crush Mary, or the derrick could be used for hanging her. Technically, Mary
killed Red in Kingsport, so Sullivan County should be where she met her fate.

The summer of 1916 had torrential rains that caused floods and
washouts on the railroad tracks. Clinchfield would not risk sending its derrick
car 80 miles, round trip, north to Kingsport when it might be needed south,
over the Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina. Before midnight on
September 12th Charlie Sparks made the decision to take Mary to Erwin to be
hanged. That decision would also hang on Erwin the fame of elephant
killer for the next 80 years.

Wednesday, September 13th was overcast from several days of rain.
The five elephants were moved from the circus lot to the railroad siding where
the hanging was to take place. It was about 5 PM. Mary's foot was
chained to the track and the derrick chain put on her neck. A witness described
the derrick chain breaking as she was lifted. The reason, the ankle chain had
not been released. The witness said he could hear the ankle tendons being torn.
When the chain broke, Mary fell back on the track and was stunned and not able
to get up. They quickly got another chain around her neck and hoisted her into
the air once more. Within a few minutes she was dead. Mary was
buried on railroad property near where she was hanged. A few people today
say they can point to the spot. No one has ever been allowed to dig up her
bones.